13 Bible Verses About Women’s Beauty

Proverbs 31:30

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

Reflection: In the two verses before this one her children call her blessed and her husband praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all” (31:28-29). Verse 30 then says who is to be praised, setting charm and beauty aside for “a woman who fears the Lord.” The book of Proverbs opens on the same theme: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (1:7).

Proverbs 31:25

“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”

Reflection: Earlier in the same poem her household is “clothed in scarlet” and she is “clothed in fine linen and purple” (31:21-22). Verse 25 uses the same image of clothing for qualities: she is clothed with strength and dignity. The next verse turns from how she is clothed to how she speaks, “with wisdom.”

Proverbs 11:22

“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.”

Reflection: The proverb compares the woman’s beauty to a gold ring and faults her because she “shows no discretion,” which leaves the beauty as out of place as jewelry on a pig. Nose rings were ordinary adornment, as Ezekiel 16:12 shows when God puts “a ring on your nose” among Jerusalem’s jewels.

1 Peter 3:3-4

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

Reflection: After naming gold jewelry and fine clothes, Peter calls a gentle and quiet spirit “of great worth in God’s sight.” The word unfading picks up language from earlier in the letter, where believers have “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (1:4) while “all their glory is like the flowers of the field” (1:24). Later he promises elders “the crown of glory that will never fade away” (5:4).

1 Timothy 2:9-10

“I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.”

Reflection: Paul’s instruction to Timothy follows one for men in verse 8, to pray “lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.” His list of hairstyles, gold, pearls and expensive clothes covers much the same ground as 1 Peter 3:3, but the adornment he names in their place is “good deeds,” the kind that suits “women who profess to worship God.”

Genesis 12:11

“As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are.’”

Reflection: Abram says this at the border of Egypt, where a famine has driven him. He fears that the Egyptians “will kill me but will let you live,” so he asks Sarai to say she is his sister (12:12-13). The Egyptians do see that she is “a very beautiful woman,” and she is taken into Pharaoh’s palace (12:14-15). In this story her beauty puts her in danger.

Genesis 29:17

“Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful.”

Reflection: Laban has two daughters, and the narrator sets Leah’s “weak eyes” beside Rachel’s beauty. Jacob loves Rachel and offers seven years’ work for her (29:18). Later in the chapter, “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless” (29:31).

1 Samuel 25:3

“His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.”

Reflection: The narrator introduces Abigail as both intelligent and beautiful, and in the same sentence sets her against her husband Nabal, who is “surly and mean in his dealings.” Later in the chapter, when she meets David, who has sworn to leave no male of Nabal’s household alive (25:22), David blesses her “for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day” (25:33).

Esther 2:7

“Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful.”

Reflection: Esther is an orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, and her beauty brings her among the young women gathered for King Xerxes. Each of them had “twelve months of beauty treatments,” six with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics (2:12). When her turn came, Esther “asked for nothing other than what Hegai,” the eunuch in charge of the harem, suggested, and the king made her queen instead of Vashti (2:15-17).

Song of Solomon 1:15

“How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.”

Reflection: In the NIV’s speaker headings the man says this, and in the next verse the woman answers in the same form: “How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how charming!” (1:16). The admiration runs both ways.

Song of Solomon 4:7

“You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.”

Reflection: The Hebrew word translated flaw is mum, a blemish or defect, the word Leviticus 22:21 uses for the blemish an animal offering must be without “to be acceptable.” In the next verse the man calls her “my bride” (4:8), a name the Song has not used before, and in 4:9 he says she has stolen his heart “with one glance of your eyes.”

Psalm 45:11

“Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.”

Reflection: The psalm’s heading calls it “A wedding song.” After praising the king, it turns in verse 10 to the bride: “Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention: Forget your people and your father’s house.” Verses 13-14 describe her gown “interwoven with gold” as she is led to the king.

Ezekiel 16:14

“And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Reflection: Ezekiel is told to “confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices” (16:2), and the chapter pictures the city as a baby abandoned at birth whom God found, raised, married and adorned with fine clothes, jewelry and a crown (16:4-13). Her beauty was perfect because of “the splendor I had given you.” The next verse turns the picture: “But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute” (16:15).